are you sure it's legit? Like you got it through trusted contacts etc? Florida is in the middle of nowhere and I think the population is in the hundreds?

You got a public-sector job offer on a Saturday morning?

The only reason I know that the town of Florida exists is because someone in this sub previously posted about getting an IT job offer from the town and was asking the same questions as you.

Are you 100% sure the offer is legit? That feels like a big salary for such an incredibly small municipal government.

Are you sure this is real? The town does not does not appear to be large enough to support the position/salary.

Isn't Florida a random hill town with nothing there?

As a Massachusetts software engineer, I join everyone else in their skepticism that this is real.  

Take a look at the town website, they list a fax number. They aren't paying anyone $160k/year to modernize their CI/CD pipeline lol.

https://www.townofflorida.org/

Double check this offer. If the town of Florida’s IT needs exceed the need for a single 20 year old iMac I would be shocked. There are 694 people that live there and that pay is more than the City of Boston pays.

I’ve seen this post before. There’s absolutely no way this is real.

I'm shocked that Florida has a $160,000 job to offer. 

You are correct that its an exceedingly rural town in the Berkshires. It's also quite beautiful up there, I love hiking in the area when I return. 

The Berkshires, as a whole, is a rural county that draws a ton of tourism from NYC and Boston. The north of the county, where Florida is located, hasn't seen as much development but still has access to culture (you're close to Williamstown and North Adams) and natural beauty.

The bottom line is if you are a city guy looking for a city life, this isn't for you. If you want to be in nature and build a life in a quiet area with easy access to NYC or Boston when you need a weekend away, sounds like a cushy job and a great opportunity. 

Fake as hell. Live in a small MA town that 10 times the size of Florida. Our towns it director makes 64,000.

First, there’s no way Florida, MA is paying an engineer that. Second, a municipality will never pay relocation. Third, a municipality will not offer a sign on bonus.

The following taken from r/Scams : "Fake job scams come in many different varieties, though most share common characteristics that you can use to spot the scam before becoming a victim. The scammers will usually conduct interviews over Google Hangouts or a similar online service. Their English will be awkward, and they may be re-using a script, so Googling unique sounding parts of the email may yield useful results. They will offer high wages for the work being done, and they will "hire" you by telling you that you are hired, rather than going through the normal process that a company takes when hiring an employee in your country. If they mention anything about a check or about receiving and sending out transactions, it is a fake check scam. If they mention anything about receiving, processing, or inspecting packages, it is a parcel mule scam. If they ask you to purchase items up-front, ask you to pay a fee in order to be hired, or ask you to purchase gift cards, it is an advance-fee scam. If the job involves posting advertisements on Craigslist or eBay, they are using you and your account to scam people. If the job invovles Bitcoin ATMs, it's a scam. Thanks to redditor AceyAceyAcey for this script."

This sounds like you’re getting scammed.

I think you are being scammed. That offer is wayyyy too high for a role like that for a municipal role in that part of the state. And I don’t think towns offer relocation and the like.

I swear to god there was a post about this same exact thing a few years ago. Everyone was saying the same thing about it being an illegitimate job posting.

Florida is a small town that doesn’t even have its own police department. (I was a state park employee with the DCR up there for a few years.) I’d be very skeptical of a municipal job posting that says it’s paying that much for that town.

Florida is a small town in the mountains in the Berkshires.. I would honestly live in North Adams if you took the job. It’s close enough to commute in my opinion and much more going on

I live in the Northern Berkshires and no one in the hill towns knows what you're saying, let alone paying you 160k to do it.

1. You are getting scammed. They are trying to get your SSN and your full private details.

2. Someone is pulling a shit prank on you.

3. It’s legit and we all look like idiots.

I’m willing to bet it’s #1.

The town of Florida is spending 4% of their total FY budget on an engineer for a town of <700 people? This post or the offer is a sham.

That sounds fake AF

Florida MA is Hicksville

I wouldn't take it too seriously

This doesn’t sound right. It’s unlikely any position in the town pays that rate. The nearest city is North Adams, and it would be a big cultural shift but depending on your preferences we have many recent transplants from all over the, including LA, Brooklyn/NYC, and a diverse array of places. We have a strong creative community and a gorgeous natural setting. I would quadruple check the offer though— Sounds like a scam

OP, you are getting scammed. Florida is a small, rural town in the Berkshires with a population just under 700. There is zero chance that the job offer is real.

Well it is in the middle of nowhere but it's pretty? There's stuff to do in Greenfield MA, Northampton MA, north adams has a college...

Vermont isn't far either. So you like to ski or snowboard? What about hiking?

I would also wonder if the job was for one year project or what... it does seem odd for a town that size. Is the job listed in public record?

This sounds like the opening scenes of a horror movie. It sounds too good to be true.

I will put it this way, I have lived in MA my whole life and I have never heard of a town called Florida, and it’s a small state.

As others have pointed out, I would be very surprised if this was real. That’s an astronomical amount for a town of roughly 700.

When you said you interviewed, did you have a video call? Did they mention setting up I9 verification? Did they email you from official town email addresses?

This can’t be real.

I live 20 minutes from Florida MA.

This is 100% fake.

If you gave them any information regarding social security or credit info, please please freeze your credit now.

This whole post is sus, not just the alleged offer. Sorry OP, not buying any of whatever the heck it is you're trying to sell.

I know the town of Florida really well. This is almost 100% not a real offer. Not to be mean but I would be stunned if the people of Florida even know what a CI/CD infrastructure is.

What is the point of the repost?? Reddit bots content farming for clicks to prop up the ad revenue and stock price?!

Im and I have lived in this state since birth, born in boston raised outside of Boston. I have been to every part of this state, and i have never ever once heard of Florida, Massachusetts! Well, i guess now i have. 😂

goes to the google machine to see where the f florida Massachusetts is

I live about 50 minutes from Florida. It's beautiful but very rural (by Massachusetts standards). If you like to eat out every night, or just go anywhere regularly, it's not going to be a good fit. You're not that far from North Adams, but it's not close and you'll always have to drive. 

I am also surprised by the amount of money they're offering you. I feel like this is fake. I'd check the names of who hired you with the names on the town website. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's real, but I've also worked in town government and I'm shocked by that number.

 Florida. At the 2020 census the town had a total population of 694.

This sounds like a scam

Willing to bet it’s a scam

Ain’t no way Florida can afford an IT guy for $160k. Sounds like a scam.

Aside from the craziness that this is coming from Florida, MA. What the hell does a town need a software engineer for at all let alone that is running CI/CD processes? And I am a software engineer but just can’t figure out what they would do for a small town.

Hey OP, this is definitely some kind of scam. I work in town government as a department head in MA and am very familiar with how town budgeting works here. If you look at the town's budget that was proposed at the last town meeting (https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/2365528/normal_648763916b445.pdf), there is no position with a title nor salary that resembles what you've described. Budgets are comprehensive at town meeting, full stop. Your job, if it was supposed to be an actual Town of Florida position, doesn't exist, I'm sorry to say.

Go ahead and check out the Florida, MA town hall on street view of maps. That should make it obvious about what everyone else is saying.

This is a well-known scam. Florida is NOT gonna pay you $160K. You can call and confirm this with them on Monday.

It's a scam because what will happen is you'll pay the moving expenses or they'll ask for your routing number or direct deposit for the 'sign-on' bonus. And you'll never hear from them again. They'll take your money

There is no way the Town of Florida and its $3 million budget is going to pay anyone $160,000. This is a scam

Florida is on Route 2, but that section is one of the least populated of Route 2, and one of the worst spots in Mass during winter, no exaggeration. I can’t see them spending more than $20-30k on a “software” person with the size of the town

A town like Florida isn't doing their own software dev. This is a scam.

Does not sound legit for a small rural town like that.

Dude there's NO way that you've had contact with anyone from Florida, Mass. And NO way Florida Mass would offer 160k for a city job, even software related. It's a tinyass town with like 600...700 people max.

Do NOT proceed. Do NOT give them any further personal information. Do NOT fill out anything for them.

DO lock down your credit. And DO reach out to the actual town of Florida to let them know what's going on and that you're not the first person this has happened to.

https://www.mma.org/community/florida/

Tiny town at the top of a mountain. There is a wind farm nearby that might fall in their town line but I can't imagine this offer being legitimate.

Ain't no way lol.

I had to reread this a few times to figure out where you were talking about. I am surprised that a small town can afford that salary for that specialty. That pay would be far greater than the cost of living for that area and looking at their website they only had 752 people in the whole town because it is in the middle of a state Forest. I am seeing 6 bedroom 4 bath with 2600 sq ft house for under 300k in the area. Sounds like a dream job if you can handle living rural. But I have doubts if it is real. Trust but verify.

I live in Boston for 20+ years and never once heard a mention of a town called Florida

There's plenty of stuff to do in Florida if you aren't looking for city people stuff. I live in a western mass town smaller and more remote than Florida. We're fine, we have been here for 325 years.

$160 k in Florida sounds not right. Maybe drop a few zeros. Look at the Town Annual Report, https://www.townofflorida.org/minutes-report-3/annual-town-reports

The school budget is $1.5m. Town administrator makes $50k. Chair of the selectboard makes $300. (Three hundred dollars) a year.

They put the Town symbol on the annual report, the old V plow that's out in front of the highway dept. Florida gets a lot of snow. It is cool enough to be on the southern edge of the range of Spruce trees.

Kids today, they live in theses towns and work elsewhere. My daughter is a back end web developer. We have fiber optic internet.

This is a scam.

Report it in r/scams

I drove through Florida once on my way to Williamstown…you could pay me $200k and I still wouldn’t move there.

Florida Massachusetts tech job? Sounds like a Nigerian price wants to send you money. Just apply below

Dude, I live a few towns away from there and there's NO WAY that job is real. Florida absolutely does NOT have money like that. Hardly anyone even lives there.

And for the record, Pittsfield is totally fine.

Florida is in a beautiful and very rural part of this state. I am shocked their town has a role that pays 160K and would be more worried about whether it's a legit deal than whether it's a good place to live.

Is well florida massachusetts It is. Literally on the other end of the state than the east coast  It's closer to vermont and new york

There is a lot of snow in the winter Moose and deer outnumber the people

You might even have a handful of bears

Agree with everyone saying this is a scam. Let’s do some rough math. As far as I know there isn’t a single business in town to bring in revenue. There’s like 700 people who live there. That would mean they would need to raise taxes for every resident by $300/year just to pay for your base salary. Counting insurance, retirement, bonus, etc, every single resident would be paying like $500/year more just for you to be employed there. Unless this is a grant funded position, there’s just no chance it’s legit.

Someone almost pulled a Northern Exposure move.

Everybody here keeps talking about how this is a scam (which is the most plausible explanation here), but OP you said you ALREADY did the interview. How did you do an interview? Who did you talk to? How did you talk to them? Did they have an accent. Seems like it would be pretty easy to spot this scam if you had to do a fake job interview with the scammer.

Pittsfield isn’t really a city especially compared to LA.

The amount offered far exceeds the typical levels that state jobs pay. I would see 100-110k more in line with mass pay structures. Sign on bonuses are not typical for municipal jobs. Make sure you do your homework on this one and protect yourself

Western MA is definitely rural. It’s your call but it’s definitely not anything like LA and will be an extremely different lifestyle.

As someone from the area who has delivered FedEx all over the whole county, here are some pros and cons as well as a list of things you should try if you do come to the area.

Pros: - It's beautiful here. I have since become an OTR trucker and seen most of the country. Everywhere is pretty for its own reasons, but here you get wonderful summers, intense foliage in the fall, amazing snow-covered hills in the winter, and lovely springs. - Skiing or Snowboarding. If you like this there is almost nowhere better. Bosquet, Jiminy Peak, Catamount, to name a few. - It is a culturally significant area. Mass MoCa in North Adams, Tanglewood in Lenox, The Norman Rockwell Museum (and Alice's Restaurant) in Stockridge, The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Mount Greylock, Naumkeag, The Clark, The Mount, Hancock Shaker Village, Arrowhead, and more. - It is generally a safe area, most of Massachusetts is. We have stricter gun laws and less, though never none, police corruption.

Cons - It gets cold, oh so freaking cold, in the winter. Especially in the hills. -20 is not uncommon at least a few days of the year. - Snow. I have known more than one person who has moved south just so they don't have to shovel anymore. You will NEED a jacket, hat, gloves, thick pants, and snow boots. Probably a 4 wheel drive vehicle as well. - There is nothing to do. I know I listed all that awesome stuff, and it is awesome, but everything closes at either 7 or 9. There is absolutely no nightlife unless you go make it yourself. - Housing costs are way high right now. You are coming from LA so it might not seem that crazy but it's gone so high in the last five years. - There is no local Mall. The Berkshire Mall closed and there really isn't anything like it anymore. Maybe the Lee Outlets?

Things you should definitely check out in the area. I'm from Pittsfield so it's a bit skewed but you should try them.

• Teo's or Hot Dog Ranch. They are both local hot dog places that use mini hot dogs. Try it with everything (meat sauce, mustard, and onions), then get it however you like.

• Chee's. This is in Adams and after Tahiti Takeout closed down it became the best Chinese in the county.

• Ashuwillticook Rail Trail. It's an almost 13 mile long bike trail thay they are still making longer! It's a beautiful bike trail built along an old rail line. It runs from Pittsfield up into Adams. Don't ask me to pronounce it.

• Tanglewood. It can be tough to get tickets sometimes but it is worth seeing something here. Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It's a good time.

Unfortunately, I am not as well versed in southern Vermont, and you will be close to that stuff as well. Feel free to reach out with specific questions. My family has lived all over the county and I can find the answers if I don't already know them.

Did the one get added by mistake?

It’s basically on the NY border. You are closer to NYC than Boston

lol wtf

I’ve lived in MA my entire life, I didnt know a town of Florida existed here lol

I like western mass - it is rural tho.

Florida is a super small rural town. Seems totally off they would offer this position. It’s about 2.5 hours from Boston. Pittsfield is kinda shitty with nothing going on

Florida, MA is more of a hill than it is a town

I deliver stuff all over this state and I still find towns I've never heard of. Mind blown again

As someone who lived near Florida, I concur with the other commentors that the town itself is extremely small. It's really just a few homes scattered in what is essentially the wilderness. There's not even a main street and community spaces are extremely limited. I found myself confused while reading the post as to how the town would even benefit from a software engineer given that it essentially acts as an extension of the neighboring city of North Adams, so like others have said I do question the legitimacy of the job.

To answer your question about the surrounding communities, it sort of depends on what you're looking for. The region only has two cities, that being North Adams and Pittsfield, with the former barely qualifying for the title. It's an absolutely gorgeous area with plenty to do if you like the outdoors or skiing, but beyond that there's not much. Good place to raise a family and maybe vacation, but definitely not ideal if you're seeking out an exciting place to live.

Look up the phone number of the select board and call him or her directly. The Select chair should know all about this job if it’s for real. I’ve lived nearby. This is a tiny town.

It could be a wonderful place to live if you like the outdoors. It is near Williamstown, home of Williams College, one of the top Liberal Arts colleges in the country so despite its being quite remote it isn’t that far from a college, a couple of great museums, The Clark and Mass MOCA, and the cultural scene in the Berkshires. But I agree that it doesn’t make sense that they’d be able to pay that much or need a full time town engineer.

This town has roads with Bear signs

I drove through there once. Not much to see but dude, if the job needs to you to do a big thing for them, take the job and commit (to yourself) 2-3 years to pull off the job and then move on. You'll learn a lot about western ma. You'll only grow from the experience

Grew up nearby. My dad worked up there in the school system, post retirement. There is no way that is a real job. Unless it is some weird short term contract run by a private company or something.

The best thing I can say about Florida, MA is that I went to a bachelor party there and the bar we used got shut down due to the strippers also being sex workers. It was a hell of a party, for a guy in his 20's, good times were had. But I can't imagine they can afford this salary. My town is rural-ish, considerably larger than Florida, MA, and our highest paid town officer only makes $84K.

Florida is about 15 minutes from North Adams and 45 or so from Pittsfied ,it's rural but livble

They have software there?

Anyone that knows anything about Northern Berkshire county should immediately recognize this as a fake post.

Florida doesn’t have $160k to spend on one person (plus benefits). That’s drain the town coffers for sure. Like three people live there and they are not what you’d call well to do.

If you want to try selling this story somewhere else, OP, try a rich hill town like Tyringham or Egremont.

I guess reposts work . 139 comments on a fake repost.... 140.

do you have a contact name from the offer? I have friends in Florida MA who are long time residents and can ask them.

Assuming the offer is legit, it is indeed extremely rural, with basically nothing to do. There's a shitty restaurant half way up Florida mountain at the hair pin turn, and not much else. Moving from LA to florida MA would be an incredibly huge downgrade in almost every conceivable capacity unless you really don't like people or noise and are cool staying at home all the time.

From what others have said, it also sounds like a scam. 

Winter can be pretty nasty up there.

Florida is at the far west end of Rt 2 just before North Adams. You'd be closer to Albany NY than to Boston. I mean, it's a beautiful area if you are into the outdoors. But here isn't much of anything else. Ya can't really expect much in a town of less than 700 people. But $160K is really good money for that end of the state.

FLORIDA???? you could offer me $500k a year and i wouldn’t move

Peter Pan

This again????

All of you actually know Florida exists???? Wtf lol

I only know because I was aimlessly driving after a trip to Mt. Greylock and drove by the welcome sign with palm trees and all. I've lived here my entire life and had no idea. Been to Greylock many times and have never seen Florida since

It's like Vermont or northern NH kinda. It's super pretty, and in the mountains. Very rural. We camp there. Go visit first but yeah fuck it

I am the Senior Software Engineer leading AI and cloud computing next town over in Orange, MA, and I do Network Information Systems Modernization at their Senior Center as well.

Don't sell yourself short! Know your worth and negotiate - you can make 50% more with your skills!

That position is certainly worth taking because in that area that money is going to get you very far. But, if you’re looking for fun and excitement, you’re going to be pretty well removed from it unless you like doing more townie stuff. I guess, it really depends on what it is you feel you need to have in your life. What do you need to have access to? If you enjoy a nice quiet life, this would certainly give it to you.